Caution to the Wind
by xBrokenRecordx
Summary: AU. Tied by a contract to a travelling carnival from a young age, Sabaku no Temari feels like all her life she's been watching a game from the sidelines. When one evening, a peculiar girl comes about the stall she's running, Temari starts to believe that for the first time ever, she can finally join in on the game.


**A/N: This is my first new fic in a while, isn't it? And with a unique theme to it - certainly something I haven't done before, right? I actually don't know :| Anyways, this was my submission for a contest over at **Tenten's-Revenge **on deviantART! The theme was "Encounters With Tenten" and I was given Temari to write "encountering" Tenten. All of the canon ideas I came up with were incapable of coming out right. So this last minute AU idea was quite a surprise. I only had the idea, I didn't know how it would play out. So...this basically wrote itself.**

**Title: **Caution to the Wind  
**Rating: **K  
**Words: **2, 409

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. I don't even own a volume of the manga. Or even merchandise. What the hell.

* * *

She leaned against the table of the booth and examined her fingernails.

There were hundreds of people bustling around the area that evening. The noise emitting from them was almost unbearably loud and she could see people just dropping their trash on the ground rather than throw it in the perfectly visible and empty trashcans that were scattered around the vicinity in outrageous quantities. It disgusted her; these people, this city, this job.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as quitting and then getting on with her life, finding somewhere else to go and something else to do. She owed money to the owner of this travelling carnival unit, and even if she raked in enough to get herself out, how was she going to get her little brothers out? She couldn't abandon them. Not now, and not ever.

The blonde haired young woman dropped her hand and gazed back out at the crowd. The sky was dark but the entire vicinity was lit up by the high quality lanterns hanging from each stall. The Ferris Wheel turned slowly a ways away, red, green, and yellow lights blinking at her. She sighed sadly, wishing she was enjoying the carnival with her brothers instead of running this grimy stall.

"Um, excuse me."

Her head whipped in the direction of the voice. She blinked and and gave herself a mental slap for allowing her thoughts to distract her so easily. She couldn't afford to let it happen again or her boss would add a larger sum of money onto what she already owed as punishment.

She put on her smile; the one she used for show. "How can I help you?"

Standing on the other side of the table was a young woman, around her age, perhaps a few years younger. Her brown hair was in buns on either side of her head and her brown eyes stared back at her. She wore a pair of dark skinny jeans and a white camisole. Dozens of rubber bracelets decorated her arms.

The girl's lips twitched into a smile. "I'd like to play." She said simply. Her left arm draped over her waist and she began to play with a bright red bracelet. The blonde couldn't see what it said.

"Of course." Temari replied, stepping to the side and gesturing to the table behind her. Aluminum cans were in pyramids of fifteen. There were three pyramids – three rows – and beside each were five hacky sacks. "The goal is to knock down all fifteen cans. If you knock down at least five of them, you can choose a prize from the third shelf –"

Temari pointed at a short wooden rectangular pillar with three triangular shelves. On the bottommost shelf – which Temari was showing her customer – were various knickknacks of little to no value. The bun-haired girl eyed the shelf evenly before nodding at the blonde.

"–If you knock down at least ten of them, you can choose anything from the second shelf –" The second shelf held items of more interest – such as a children's sweatshirt and a **Konoha Foxes Football **hat. Temari resisted the urge to sigh as she finished explaining things.

"And if you knock down all fifteen, you can choose a prize from the top shelf." A lava lamp, a large toy stuffed dog, a coon skin hat, and other varying items were presented on the topmost shelf of the pillar-shelf.

"One hacky sack costs fifty cents, three costs two dollars, and five costs two fifty. If you purchase three or five throws, than the amount of cans you knocked down per throw is calculated. The average amount determines your 'score' and therefore what prizes you can choose from." Temari bit her lip and looked up at the roof of her stall. "It's a bit hard to explain."

The girl with the buns waved her hand through the air and reached into her back pocket. "Nah. I get it. I actually pay attention in school. It's average. The number of cans I knocked down per round added together and then divided by the number of throws I bought. Simple enough to understand." She said, rifling through the crisp green bills in the black wallet.

"You'd be the first." Temari said in relief, leaning against the front table. "You have no idea how many idiots come to this booth and they don't understand something as simple as basic math." She rolled her eyes, stood up straight again, and grinned at the girl.

"I have no idea how you stand this job." The girl shook her head in sympathy and finally took out a twenty dollar bill. She handed it to the blonde and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout the twenty…my mom just gave me a hundred dollars in cash before bumbling off to the bar on Hokage Avenue." She rolled her eyes and Temari gave her a genuine smile.

"It's fine. How many hacky sacks would you like? One, three, or five?" She asked, opening up the change box and tacking the twenty dollar bill with the others.

"I'm going to try my luck with five." The girl said, cracking her knuckles and stretching her arms. There was a confident grin on her face as Temari counted her change and handed it back to her.

"Good luck." The blonde said, placing five hacky sacks in front of her. Temari's customer picked up one and tossed it back and forth from each hand.

"What happened to throwing baseballs?" She asked.

Temari shrugged. "It got too easy. So we changed it."

"Right." The brown haired girl tossed it in the air one last time before looking at the first pyramid of cans. She wasted no time in bringing her arm back ever so slightly, and firing the hacky sack at her aluminum targets.

The cans clanged together as they fell to the padded ground behind the table. Temari turned towards her customer and gave her an impressed stare. She pulled a small notebook from the pocket of her uniform and popped the cap off of her less than efficient pen to jot down the result of the first throw: **15 of 15**.

"Go ahead and throw again." Temari said, setting the booklet and pen on the front table. "At the second row."

The brown haired girl picked up a second hacky sack and tossed it between her hands like she did with the first. Then she aimed and fired and the second pyramid of cans scattered to the ground and joined the first. Temari picked up her notebook again and recorded the result.

The third throw held the same result as the first two – fifteen of fifteen cans.

"I don't think I've seen anybody knock down all fifteen, let alone three times in a row." Temari commented as she moved behind the back table to pick up the cans. "You have perfect aim."

"Ah, it's not perfect…" Her customer said with an embarrassed laugh. "I'm out of practice. It wasn't the same each time. I was about a centimeter off at least for that last throw…I'm lucky they all knocked down."

"Are you on a baseball team or something?" Temari asked.

"I used to be on a softball team when I was a kid. I was still in the orphanage and the people who ran it thought I had too much pent up energy so they stuck me in sports. When my mom adopted me, she took me out of sports because she thought my accuracy skills were wasted throwing balls. So she taught me how to do something better with it."

Temari stood up with a box in her arms holding all of the cans. She gave the bun haired girl a look. "And what was that?"

"Knife throwing." The girl replied with a grin.

"…You're kidding me." Temari said with a deadpan.

"In no way am I lying to you."

Temari shook her head. "I don't know who your mother is, but she's insane."

"I know. Everybody knows, actually. Just ask anybody in Konoha if they know who Mitarashi Anko is and you'll get about the same reaction every time." The girl smiled.

"What reaction should I expect?"

"Oh…they'll run away screaming. Or faint, depending on who you are."

"Sounds lovely."

"Mmhmm."

Temari dropped the box back under the table and moved out of the way. "You can throw now."

Her customer nodded and proceeded to throw the hacky sack at her target once again. Temari didn't even bother to pay attention to the last throw, knowing exactly what the result would be.

"Anything from the top shelf." She said, slipping the notebook and pen back into her pockets. Her brown haired customer cocked her head to the side and met her eyes.

"Your name." She said simply. Temari stared at her in confusion.

"What?"

"My prize. I want to know your name. What is it?"

Temari hesitated. This was a stranger from a city she wasn't familiar with. She threw knives and had some crazy insane mother who was apparently not right in the head. For all she knew she could be a serial killer, wanting to know her name so that at the moment she least expected, she could take her out.

Temari pushed these thoughts aside. There was no way she could be anything like a serial killer. Yes, she did seem like one of those crazy types and her mother seemed to belong in an asylum. But Temari felt comfortable talking to her and she already felt like the girl was a friend. The blonde didn't think she'd had so much fun talking with someone in a long time. Not since before her mother died, at least.

"My name is Sabaku no Temari." She said finally.

The bun haired girl grinned and held out her hand. "I'm Mitarashi Tenten. It's nice to meet you, Temari."

Temari found herself reaching out and taking the girl's hand. "Nice to meet you, too."

Tenten grinned and her eyes flickered to Temari's left. "The lava lamp seems like a cool prize." She said after a moment.

Temari blinked and turned towards the prize pillar. She blinked again. "Sure." She took it off the shelf and handed it to Tenten.

"Your name sounds Sunan." Tenten suddenly said. "Why'd you go and get a job at this carnival? I'm pretty sure carnivals don't pay well and I can tell that your brain is a force to be reckoned with. You could do something great and yet you're here. Why?"

Temari stared at the girl for several long moments, her mind internally battling with itself. Tenten met her gaze patiently and expectantly and Temari felt a bit thankful that the girl wasn't pushing her to answer.

Maybe if she could just tell somebody…she would feel better…maybe she could get help…she could break free of the contract binding her and her brothers to this job…

Making up her mind, Temari opened her mouth to speak. However, before she could get a single word out, she was interrupted.

"Tenten-chan!" A loud exuberant voice exclaimed. There was a flash of bright green and suddenly there was tall, dark haired man standing beside Tenten. He wore a sweatshirt the color of the forest and his hair was pulled back into a braid down his back. His eyebrows were rather large and his grin was blinding.

"Tenten-chan!" The newcomer exclaimed again. "Neji-kun and I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"How many times have I told you not to call me 'Neji-kun', Lee?" Said an exasperated young man, appearing by Tenten's other side. "It makes you sound like an obsessed teenage girl." The young man's eyes were a pearly white and his hair was long and chocolate brown in color. His light grey jacket was zipped up halfway with his hands nestled inside each pocket.

"Oh you mean your _fangirls_?!" Tenten told him jokingly, propping her elbow up on his much-to-tall shoulder and leaning on him. The pearly eyed boy frowned at her.

"But 'Neji-kun' makes you sound so youthful!" The green-clad boy said joyfully to his male companion. Tenten grimaced.

"Not everything has to be youthful, Lee…" She said with a sigh. Her eyes flickered to Temari, who was watching the scene with much interest. She hadn't ever had friends. She hadn't even gone to school since her mother died and her contract with this carnival was formed. She had to learn all of her knowledge from books. Watching Tenten talk with her friends – that's what Temari assumed they were, at least – made her want to get out of there that much more…

"Temari?"

Temari blinked and looked at Tenten. She was holding a slip of paper in her hand as her companions – Lee and Neji, wasn't it? – bickered in the background.

"Sorry, yes?" She replied to the Mitarashi girl.

"My cell phone number is on this slip. Call me sometime and perhaps we could meet up at Hatake's Coffee Shop – that's on Namikaze Lane – and get to know each other a bit better. Kakashi may be lazy and a horrible teacher but he never jokes around with his coffee." Tenten handed Temari the slip of paper. Beneath a nine digit number were directions to Hatake's Coffee Shop. Temari smiled and slipped into the front pocket of her jeans.

"The carnival opens up again at six pm tomorrow. Maybe we could meet around lunchtime. I don't have much money to spend for myself so perhaps we could go somewhere where it isn't that expensive." She replied eagerly, which was rather unusual for her.

"And again, Hatake's is the perfect place. Let's meet up at noon, alright?"

"Sounds perfect." Temari said. She smiled at her new possible friend.

"Awesome. I'll see you tomorrow, Temari!" Tenten said happily. She smiled one last time before turning around and grasping the arms of Lee and Neji. "Lee, please tone it down and Neji, don't fight in public. Gosh." She rolled her eyes. "You both are insane."

Temari stared after Tenten until she was swallowed by the crowd.

* * *

**Temari is pushing her way through the crowd so she can get to Hatake's Coffee Shop on time - if you review, you won't be in her way and therefore deemed safe.**

**She'll also buy you whatever you want at Hatake's as a token of her gratitude.**


End file.
